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Three cross country skiers from Vienna had to be rescued from the Dachstein mountain in Upper Austria on Sunday, after getting lost in a blizzard. The skiers made a snow cave to shelter in until the rescue team arrived.

The group, a 28-year-old woman and two men, aged 27 and 31, had been staying in the Simony hut on the mountain and decided to tackle the descent down to the valley on Sunday morning, despite bad weather conditions.

After almost two hours they had only managed to go 150 metres due to strong winds and poor visibility. Having lost their orientation they made a distress call, and were advised by the mountain rescue team to dig a snow cave to shelter in as the rescue could take some time.

Christoph Preimesberger, the head of the rescue team said that even his men had difficulty reaching the lost skiers in the storm. “We were being blown away, it was a very tense situation,” he said. “I’m very grateful that we all reached the valley safely by evening - with just some slight frostbite,” he added.